Between Heartbeats
by nekilarose
Summary: Jubal hears about the stabbing.


**WE HAVE AN AGENT DOWN! I REPEAT, AGENT DOWN, GET AN AMBULANCE TO THIS LOCATION, ASAP!**

Once the declaration comes over the airwaves, Jubal springs into action. Barking orders at everyone assembled in order to at least try and gain control the situation.

"Jubal?" Scola's voice comes in quieter over his earpiece, "You there?"

"Yeah, Stuart, what is it?" He steps away from the chaos of the main floor.

"Jubal.." Scola hesitates slightly, "the agent down, it's Kristen." He says solemnly.

Jubal was suddenly grateful for the relative quietness of the corridor. He swore he felt his heart stop and start again as he leans heavily on the wall. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, she got in between Maggie and the suspect, and he had a knife-"

"Where the fuck were you?" Jubal hisses, uncaring of how he sounds in the moment.

"I know, and I'm sorry-look the ambulance is here, I'll meet you at the hospital." The line goes dead.

Jubal rips out his earpiece and storms back inside, "I'm going to the hospital." He tells Isobel, his voice brooking no argument.

The entire drive to the hospital he's inundated with memories:

_-That morning when he was the first to awake, a rarity, as normally she was already half dressed when he opened his eyes._

_-Last month when they managed to get a whole two days away, and spent the entire time locked away in a cabin upstate._

_-The first time he realized that what he was feeling was reciprocated, and he wasn't a creepy old man perving on the younger agents._

_-Their first kiss._

He bursts through the emergency room doors at a fast walk, knowing to control himself as to not give everything away. His eyes first land on Maggie, more specifically, the blood on her sweater.

_Kristen's_ blood.

His heart stutters again and he makes himself take a deep breath, he'll be of no help to anyone if he passes out too.

"Maggie." His voice is hoarse with unspoken emotion.

"Jubal!" Maggie hurries over to brief him on the case, but he's too focused on the blood staining the front of her clothes. Maggie realizes that his attention is elsewhere and starts over, making sure to tell him the most important thing first. "She's alive. In surgery right now, but alive."

He blinks, and his heart resumes beating like normal. He takes a second to absorb the information before his decades long training is kicking in and he asks for a run-down on the events that transpired right before the stabbing.

Maggie has tears in her eyes as she explains that Kristen was trying to help subdue the suspect for the arrest, and the suspect had a concealed knife on him. He tries to separate his personal self from the professional, but both sides are screaming in tandem now.

"Where's Scola?" He interrupts Maggie. He sees her exchange an anxious glance with O.A. "He's in the breezeway, but-"

Jubal takes off before she finishes talking; his mission now is simply to find his old friend. He finds him right where Maggie said he'd be, hunched over a little to protect his lit cigarette from the winds whistling across the thoroughfare.

Scola must feel his eyes on him because he looks up, lit cigarette dangling precariously from his lips. Jubal comes to stand in front of him, watching while he stubs it out and drops it into the butt can. "I'm sorry, man." He starts gesturing with his hands, "I don't know what happened! One minute she was standing there with her gun trained on the perp, and the next, she was in his space with Maggie. We couldn't get a shot off-"

Jubal reaches out and brings him in for a hug, "I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier. I know you, and I know you would have switched places with her if you could have."

Scola returns the hug and nods, "I would have taken that knife for her in a heartbeat." He pulls away as he runs his hands across his face. "Any word?"

Jubal nods, "She's still in surgery." Even as he says the words, his heart feels like it still wants to gallop out of his chest. "Come on. I don't want to be out here when the doctor comes back."

They're at the door when Scola stops, "I really am sorry. I know you and she are…" He lets the statement filter out, as if he's unsure if he should continue or not.

Jubal pats him on the back, neither acknowledging nor denying the statement. His relationship with Kristin isn't as unequal now that she was an agent out in the field as it was when she served directly under him in the JOC, but it was still frowned upon seeing as they were working together, and he was in her chain of command.

Isobel has joined Maggie and O.A in the waiting room while he went to find Scola. The air is thick with tension as they await word from the doctors. "Is there someone we should call?" Isobel asks, "A boyfriend…or girlfriend?"

Jubal is surprised to see every eye except Isobel's turn to him. He knows Stuart knows about them, the other agent had figured it out a while ago. But seeing that Maggie and O.A were in the know as well was a bit surprising.

"I'll handle it." He assures his section chief.

The hours tick by and just as he comes back in from calling his kids, the doctor come out with an update. Jubal lets out a breath he didn't even know he was holding when he was told that Kristin made it through the surgery with flying colors.

Teacher's pet. He chuckles to himself.

* * *

Later, much later after Kristen is in her room, she wakes up briefly. Just long enough for Maggie to give her a hug, and playfully scold her for getting in the way. Stuart manages to choke out an "I'm sorry, kid", while O.A promises to bring his switch so she can have something to do while she recovers.

Once they leave, Kristen's eyes watch as he attempts to get comfortable in the reclining chair by her bed. She gives him a faint smile as the drugs kick in and she fades away into sleep.

He shifts again, taking her hand in his and as he follows her into dreamland, he notices that it's the first time his heart has been calm all day.


End file.
